Death's Gift: A Life Begining
by Destery The Ice Alchemist
Summary: The race against death begins. The terror she felt is shattered. The new life with a quest. The demon's blissful passion for the once hated. Rachel must complete her new found quest to open the gates to heaven.
1. Chapter 1: Daily Life

The feeling of terror. The race against death. The memorable scream that echos in my haunted nightmare. These are the memories I live through. No escaping it. No escaping the nightmare I have become. The question is though what must I do? And how do I do it? What can I do with my life split in two with one side not even a reality and my other side is the true me. The new me. I have nothing filling my mind except revenge pain and horror. Is this what death is like? Terrible and confusing? At least from my perspective, that's what I thought. Where it all begins, is where it all ends.

"Blue?" Cameron questioned Katie.

"Water," she replied taking a sip of her water.

"Of course you say that," he said with a chuckle.

Cameron had made up a game when we were all bored during lunch for him to list a color and we would tell him the first thing that comes to our mind. Not his best idea, but definitely something.

"You're turn Rach. Um, Rachel?" Katie questioned waving her hand in front of my distant looking face.

I turned my head towards them, "Hmm?"

"You're turn for the color game," she said twirling her brown curly hair impatiently.

"Right. Hit me, Cam." I looked at Cameron.

"Well, if you insist." He leaned forward and charged his hand at my face.

I flinched and slapped his hand away. "Not literally, Camera!" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Seriously, Cameron, just give her a color!" Katie cried.

He leaned back with a sigh. "You girls take the fun out of everything. Red."

"Blood." I told him.

"Blood?" He stared blankly at me.

"Uh, yeah. It's the first thing that popped into my head, alright?" I turned away and opened my book to the last chapter I was on.

"Yeah, I thought you'd say something not so gross," Katie looked at Stark then back to me.

"In her words I'm technically thinking the same thing. I wouldn't say gross though."

"Of course, Camera, because you're a guy." I said turning a page.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just stop calling me 'camera'."

"Fine." I smirked.

"Wipe that smirk off your face!" Cameron demanded.

I turned my head to him and stuck his tongue at him.

"Yeah, real mature," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Katie and I laughed.

"Oh, stop arguing, you guys." Katie said in between small giggles.

Cameron smirked. "Wouldn't necessarily call it 'arguing'-"

"Cam, you always have an excuse for everything, don't you." I said, not really asking a question.

"Sure do!" he stated with a laugh as the school bell tolled three times announcing the end of lunch. "Well, see you ladies later!" He said grabbing his books running off faster than a busy bee.

"Walk to class together?" Katie looked at me with a look of innocence on her face.

I gave her a smile. "Sure." I grabbed my books and she grabbed hers.

There was a whole bunch of chattering and laughing as we walked down the hall to our class.

"Did you get the math homework done?" Katie asked.

I looked at her confused. "We didn't have homework."

"We didn't?"

"No, we didn't." I accidentally bumped into Derek, the popular jerk of the school. "Gosh, I'm sorry!" I looked up meeting his smirk.

"Yeah, you'd better be sorry!" he exclaimed.

I met his smirk with a glare.

"You gonna do something about it, loser?" He knocked my books out of my hands onto the dirty floor. His action was encouraged by the laughter of his friends.

I just stared.

He laughed. "You're such a girl. You can't even talk back. Seriously, Katie, why do you hang out with this little nobody?

"Derek, shut up before I smack you in the face. Hard!"

He gave a little chuckle. "Okay, whatever. Well, that took the fun out of it. Later, losers." Derek walked away giving high fives to his friends.

I picked up my books silently and lost my glare.

I looked at Katie who gave me a sour look. "Rach, you gotta stick up for yourself. You can't just keep letting him pick on you."

"Well, whatever. Derek is just a nobody inside, but on the outside-" I sighed at the truth, "-he's the king."

Katie punched my arm. "He's not even that, he's a bully."

"True," I agreed.

The bell chimed three times.

"Crap, we're late to class!" Katie started running.

I stumbled into a run to catch up with her. "Hey, slow down, Kate!"

"You speed up!" she called back.

We broke into laughs as we ran to make it to class in a minute.


	2. Chapter 2: Drifting Night

Fifth period went by quicker than usual. I walked over to my sixth period class where I met Derek again. He shoved me away from the door.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Ladies first doesn't make sense to me because ladies last seems more reasonable looking at the fact ladies and last begin with the letter 'l'. Just like your name, Loser." He smirked and his friends laughed from behind. They walked in and I rolled my eyes following behind them.

Sixth period was sadly longer than my other classes even though sixth was my favorite class, science. Derek and his pack of idiots kept throwing pencils and spit wads at me. How I know this? When I got home I found many spit wads in my hair. Unrolling one that read "Stay in place, loser!"

I sighed. My mom knocked on the door and came in patting her stomach which carried my little brother or sister soon to come. "Hun, you alright? You seemed down when you walked in."

I looked at her forcing a smile. "I'm fine, Mom. Just a typical, boring day at school that wore me out."

She stared at me in silence for a few seconds. "Well, alright. If somethings bothering you, you be sure to let me know first, okay?"

I nodded. "Alright, Mom."

"Okay. Oh, you have a piece of paper in your hair, Rachie." She pointed to the left side of her black hair directing me to the spit wad in my hair.

I picked it out and threw it in the waste basket. "Right." I mumbled a bit annoyed.

"I love you, Rachel Baby," she told me.

"I love you too, Mama. Please don't call me baby. I'm not a baby anymore."

"Sorry, Sweetie. You'll always be my baby though." She walked over to me and kissed my forehead.

I felt tears coming on. I wanted to jump into her arms and cry my eyes out like I use to as a little kid and tell her about the terrible people there are in this world. But I wasn't twelve anymore. I was a mature fifteen year old turning sixteen in five days. I held back the tears and watched as she walked out of the room.

She looked at me her brown eyes met my fathers green eyes. "You sure your okay?"

I tucked a strand of my black hair behind my ear. "I'm fine, Ma."

She nodded. "Alright." She walked out of my room and shut the door.

I felt small tears roll down my cheeks. So, this is what it's like when you grow up? You wish you could just jump into your childhood again? Maybe this is just the beginning of growing up.

I wiped my tears and brushed my hair with a comb to get rid of the last spit wads stuck in my hair.

I wonder if there was a possible way for the bad to become good. I can't tell on him. That would be stupid and childish. I'm just going to do what most people do; just ignore them.

After spending hours on homework, my dad whistled and called me downstairs.

I dropped my pen and walked downstairs to help set up dinner. When I reached the last step he surprised me with a flash from a camera.

"Hey, Hun. Guess who's almost sixteen?" Dad sang.

I put on a small smile and he snapped another picture.

"Dad, I don't like being in pictures. You know that too," I said still smiling a little.

"Well, since when does your little girl turn sixteen?" he asked winding the camera.

I walked over to him and took the camera out of his hands putting it on the counter. "I'm not really 'little' anymore."

"Well, you're little to us!" Mom called, peeking her head out of the kitchen keeping her eye on her cooking. "We're getting too old."

I walked over to her and hoped up to sit on the counter next to the stove, swinging my legs without kicking the cabinets. "Mom, you aren't old."

She stirred the red sauce a little and then took the noodles and poured them into the strainer. "Oh, puh-lease," she said, mocking me with a smile.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. She held up a spoonful of the spaghetti sauce to my mouth. "That's my line." I told her as I took a sip of the sauce. I smacked my lips and made a face. "Hmm. Perfect!" I announced.

"Good! It's ready then." She stated, pouring the sauce into a serving bowl. I ran to the dining room and sat in the middle while Dad set the table. I waited to be greeted by the pleasant taste of Mom's spaghetti.

Laying in bed while listening to soft music was always my favorite time of the day. I would listen to my heart's content, until I drifted into a peaceful slumber. My favorite song to listen to is Cherish by Ai Otsuka; it's really calming and quiet, even though it's in Japanese. I stared at the ceiling listening to Cherish over and over again. I would yawn about every fifteen minutes. I would blink sleepily starting to drift away. When I was laying in bed listening to this song it made me think of the beauty life had. The living things that surround other living things, and love. Especially love. Love was a grand thing to take hold of. I have never given in to the emotion. I didn't think of the beauty of love much, but this song made me think of all beautiful things including love. . . and even death. . .


	3. Chapter 3: Breaking News

I blinked my eyes open, waking up to a cloudy Saturday. I sat up in bed thinking about how I wish this weekend would go on forever, looking at the dried up spit wads on the floor. But, I wanted this weekend to last as well. With my birthday being right around the corner on September 17th. Only four more days away now.

My cell phone started buzzing like crazy. I picked it up and looked at the caller ID and number. Katie.

"Hello?" I answered, sleepily.

Katie's hyper voice sprang through the phone, "Hey! Did I wake you up? Do you have any plans for today? I'm gonna come over! Is it okay if I come over?"

"You had coffee this morning didn't you?" I questioned, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"I don't know, maybe? Yeah, why? It doesn't really make a difference does it?"

"It does, you're a little more hyper than usual," I stated with a yawn.

"You sound tired. Maybe I should let you sleep more. Did I wake you?" she asked again.

"No, I woke up on my own. Just a few minutes before you called."

"Oh, okay! So, I'll be right over!"

"No, wait," I warned.

"What?" she asked with little huffs at the end as if she already started running.

I looked at the dried up spit wads. I didn't want her to be complaining how I didn't say something, then march me down to the school to tell whatever soul is there at the time.

"Hello?" she cooed impatiently. "Earth to Rachel! You still have someone on the phone!"

"Right, sorry. I'll come over there, alright?" I said.

"Really?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, yes. I'll be over in fifteen minutes."

"Make it ten!" she hung up.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, fine," I said, snapping my phone shut, a bit annoyed.

Whether she liked it or not it was going to be fifteen minutes because it took me ten minutes to get out of bed and clean up my messy self. I nearly jumped off the top step to get downstairs.

"Ma, Pa, I'm going over to Katie's!" I ran to open the door.

"Wait, Rachel!" Mom cried after me.

I turned back to her. She held a small smile on her face and walked over to me, carefully taking my hand.

"You should know that we found out you're going to be having a little sister, Hun," she held my hand carefully.

I smiled small. "That's great, Ma!" I hugged her gently. "That's great."

"I'm glad you're happy about this," she told me.

"Who wouldn't be?" I said stepping out of her arms.

She smiled at me. "Have a good time, Sweetie."

"Thanks, Ma! Goodbye, Pa!" I shouted.

"Have fun," came his tired, muffled voice.

I ran out the door and ran down the street until I reached the town.

Katie's house wasn't that far even though I had to run through town just to get there. I expected to be running into a nagging, hyper Katie, but instead, when I answered the door, there was a look of worry on her face and she dragged me into her house saying, "This is just terrible! You aren't going to believe this!"

We ran upstairs into her room and she pulled out a DVD with nothing written on it. She put it in her DVD player and pressed play. She sat on her bed with sad eyes and dragged me onto the bed next to her.

"_Next on FOX NEWS!" _The television screamed. The came the a formal woman voice,"_A young girl by the age of 16 named Melanie Hardwex was found dead in the town of San Juan Capistrano, California, from a despicable murder with a knife driven into her heart and with a broken arm and a broken ankle. There have been many other similar incidents in the towns of Death Valley, Victor Ville, Corona, San Diego, and now San Juan Capistrano. Police are investigating the murderer as we speak, but none have managed to even get a clue of what he looks like. He was said to only murder at night, on account of when the poor souls were murdered. I'm Gretchen Carlson and it is 8:25 which means time to move onto the weather report. what do you have for us, Steve-" _Katie shut off the TV.

I stared blankly at it for a moment.

"Rach, do you know what this means?" Katie looked at me with a look of terror.

I felt like my heart stopped and I sighed. "Okay, I didn't come to your house to be frightened. Let's just talk or paint nails, dye your hair, or something."

"I do need to dye my hair again, but I need the dye," she told me.

"Come on, the stores right across the street we'll go get it."

"I'm not going there by myself!" she interjected.

"We're going together, Idiot!" I rolled my eyes and grabbed Katie's wrist. "Besides, it's like Carlson said; this dude only murders at night. Now, come!"

She trotted behind me following me all the way to the store without a word, but continuously watched for any suspicious looking people.

I was glad to finally reach the store, and I could tell Katie was too with her sigh of relief to be around a whole bunch of people.

I looked at the dye colors reading each one carefully. "Which one's yours, Kate?"

"It's this one! Light brown!" She pointed at the one above my head. I reached for it and grabbed it accidentally knocking a few down.

I bent down and picked up the dye's and filed them back into their correct slots.

"What if that murderer comes here? What if he kills someone we know?. . ." Katie's voice trailed off with concern.

"Hey, what if the dude killed Derek? I'd praise the murderer." We broke into laughter and I shook my head. "Nah, I don't wish bad on anyone," I added.

"Oh, you couldn't hurt a fly," she stated as we walked to the front of the store.

"I could if I wanted to!" I grimaced.

"Psh, yeah in your dreams."

I elbowed her hard in the arm. "I could hurt you."

"Ow!" she yelped rubbing her side. "Jerk!"

"You know you still love me."

"Of course." We laughed as I handed the dye to the check out lady. Soon we had paid and were ready to go.

For Katie, it meant out into the "dangerous town" where as her house was only just across the street.

"So, I couldn't hurt a fly, but I'm not scared of much. But you could hurt anyone that hurt you and you're as scared as a girl being haunted," I stated.

"Well. . . yeah that's pretty much it."

We laughed again.


	4. Chapter 4: Cherishing Life

I massaged the dye into her hair watching the chemicals change her hair color.

"So, about this whole murderer thing. . ."

I put my dye covered hand in front of her mouth, "Stop right there. The more you talk about it the more creepy it seems. And who knows, maybe the murderer will, oh, I dunno, catch the vibe of your fear." I trailed off.

"They can actually do that!" She squirmed in front of me in a bit of a panic.

"Katie, I'm kidding!" I protested with a laugh.

"That's so not funny!" she exclaimed laughing a little herself.

"Sure it's not." I rolled my eyes pushing down on her head scrubbing her hair then finally rolling it up into a bun and pinning it on top of her head.

"Now, c'mon. Let's go watch One Missed Call."

"Oh god," she said in grief.

Sitting through a horror movie with Katie is like sitting with a friend that's seen a movie over three hundred times. She will _not _shut up!

"I-I mean, there's no possible way that this dead chick is gonna call us right? Please say right!" Katie panicked.

"Katheryn! Would it kill you to shut your mouth for five minutes and just watch the damn movie?" I snapped and rolled my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Rach. You know I'm not the biggest fan of movies though," she reminded me.

"I know. I'm sorry for snappin' but you really should stop talking so much during the movie." I sighed. I searched about for her remote to pause the movie. "Katie, where's the remote?"

"What remote?" She asked with a confused expression.

I looked at her with confusion. "You're remote? What happened to it?"

"Oh, _that _remote." She laughed nervously. "Um, I don't really. . ."

I cut her off, "You lost the remote, didn't you?" I looked at her in irritation.

"Yep," she admitted with an innocent smile.

I rolled my eyes, stood up and pressed the pause button on her DVD player. I turned to her with her look I knew she was about to be asking why I paused the movie.

"Let's go, brat. You need to wash your hair out. Then let's get popcorn and finish watching the movie." I smirked and walked out of her room.

"Yes, mother!" I heard her call after me sarcastically. I snickered a little.

I jumped down the stairs and grabbed the box of popcorn taking out one packet. Katie's mom, Linda, walked into the kitchen and gave me a kind smile.

I smiled back and asked, "What, you happy you don't have to be listening to Katie's blab-talk while dying her hair?" The shower upstairs started running and I shut the microwave and pushed the popcorn button and after one beep the microwave started rotating the popcorn.

"That could not be more true, Rach, but just the sight of you living and breathing in my house has always warmed me you know that?" _Pop, pop, pop_ went the popcorn.

"That's kind of you, Linda. Thanks." I gave her a wide smile.

"Oh, but of course, Rachel. So, how's you're mother? The baby?" She asked.

"It's gonna be a boy. My little baby brother," I announced with a proud smile.

"Oh that's wonderful!" She said clapping her hands together with an excited smile. "You must be so thrilled!"

I nodded keeping my kind smile. "Indeed, I am."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm young enough to know what other teenagers would think about this. 'Ew! Our parents still do it!' I'm so glad you're not like that. You're maturing up dear. You were always a very mature girl, like, the one in the pack of wolves that's the leader."

I blushed and laughed at her analogy. "You know me all too well that wolves are my favorite animal."

"You've been around for so long, dear. What would we do without you?" Her voice became more gentle instead of exciting. At least I know where Katie's babbling comes from.

"I'm sure some people would be able to do a lot without me." I said settling my smile.

Her bold smile disappeared and brought a look of sadness to her face as if she changed lives with a lost puppy and looked away from me asking "Is it those boys again?"

I nodded slowly, she definitely knew me all too well.

"I don't know what's gotten into Derek. He use to be such a good boy. Now he's just, one of those guys. Those guys that think they run this world." She looked back at me. "In reality, Rachel, you need to realize they don't run this world. Those who are kind but strong, those are the people who succeed. Nothing bad ever happens to those people. To people like you." She stepped up to me and cupped my face in her hands. "Don't let them bring you down, you hear me? Focus on better things in life. Think of your future brother." She smiled sadly and hugged me.

The people around me were good but weren't good at making me want to look happy despite how happy I feel. Each person, they made me want to cry and let my inner child come out. I always fought against that though. I always fought against those tears. Right here, I'm fighting against the tears and hugging her back tightly not wanting to let go.

"Hey! I wanna join the hug fest!" Katie interrupted the beautiful moment.

Both Linda and I couldn't help but laugh and break our hug. She ran over to me and hugged me.

"Hey, easy! You dyed your hair light brown, so stop acting like a dumb blonde." I laughed.

"Hey!" she broke our hug and gave me a grimace.

I matched her face best I could and then we all began laughing.

"Come on. Let's go finish watching the movie." I started towards the stairs.

"Um, I'd rather paint our nails. Like you said?" She gave me an innocent smile.

"Katie, that was a suggestion, and you just don't wanna watch the movie do you?" I raised an eyebrow and gawked at her.

"No! That's not it!"–she tapped her chin– "Well, kind of. I just don't wanna be scared right now!"

"Well, you girls have all day. Go paint your nails," Linda instructed pulling out her bag of nail polish which held possibly every color you could find of nail polish. "Be scared, watch movies." –she poured popcorn into a large bowl– "go enjoy yourselves." She handed Katie the bowl and shooed us off.

Katie shoved the bag in my hands and grabbed my hand, dragging me up the stairs with a "let's go!" Her mother is definitely one of my favorite people in the world. She's always so kind. She has Katie's babble, but when she babble's, it's always for a good reason. Katie, she just rambles about random crap.


End file.
